Who here goes to the gym before going to work, showers and gets ready in the locker room? I know I do!

About 2 days a week, I have a schedule of getting to the gym at 7:30 am to get my fitness on before heading across the street to work. These 1 hour workouts consist of intense cardio and a stretch session. So needless to say, I am drenched in sweat, head to toe, and not in my best state!

I always make sure that I come prepared to get ready at the gym. My check list goes like this:

I have had the horror of forgetting to pack an extra pair of shoes for the day, and had to resort to walking around in my bright blue rubber shower flip flops. I recovered and slowly got over the dreadfulness of not wearing matching shoes.

One winter morning, I was having a passionate workout, really pushing myself to the max. I was feeling empowered, my adrenaline was pumping and I had pop in my step. It was an overall good morning. The more I was sweating the more I knew that I got a great workout in.

After callin’ it quits, I went about my morning routine, took a shower, did my hair, and did my makeup etc. Then came time to get dressed; I put on my bra, my shirt, followed by my pants. Except only this time when I went to grab my work pants from my bag, all I felt were my black sweaty wet workout pants.

I started to panic! I must have taken everything out of my gym bag about 20 times. Still NO PANTS!

So here I am, half way dressed with a towel around my waist, standing there with a complete look of horror on my face. What do I do now? Do I walk to my car in 24 Hour’s towel, hoping I don’t get caught stealing? Do I walk out in my underwear pretending nothing is wrong, like it’s totally natural?

I was definitely freaking out. And to make matters worse, I was already late for work.

So, it came down to make a decision. I knew what I had to do and I was not looking forward to it. I was nice and clean, smelling like a bed of roses, and now I was going to smell like a dog had shit on those roses. I grabbed my nasty wet work out pants and had to put them back on.

My dignity was practically gone when I got strange looks from the other women in the locker room, who were putting on dry clean clothes that they didn’t forget. Embarrassed and smelly as I was, I ran out of the locker room and straight to my car. I sat there for a while thinking if I should really walk into work in this condition.

Basically it came down to, “fuck it!” I’m taking a sick day and going home to salvage the rest of my dignity that I have left.

Unless you want to do the no pants dance at work, I suggest double checking your bag before leaving the house.